Netherlands- When we arrived at The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference on Tuesday morning, I was immediately approached by conference president Cora Weiss, who had staked me out at the entrance of the Netherlands conference Centre. She insisted that Athletes United for Peace participate in the day's opening press conference, a panel that included Emary Sanchez, Jonathan Shell, Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Jose Ramos Horta, United Nations Development Fund Executive Director Noeleen Horta and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Olara Otunnu.

Each of the panelists spent time discussing his or her involvement in the century-ending conference, as well as their visions for peace in the new millennium. I had an opportunity to share AUP's role in bringing sports diplomacy to the historic event. In addition to talking about our objective of promoting peace through sports, I had the chance to share AUP's long range goal of conducting a quadrennial Junior National World Peace Games in cities throughout the world. In discussing this project, leaders from the United Nations expressed a sincere interest in the concept.

Later in the evening, sports diplomacy was was displayed by the Peacebuilders 2000 delegation at the opening ceremonies of the conference's Exhibition Basketball Series, held at the nearby De Hougzarij Sports Stadium. The program started with an address from Aart Dekker of the Promoting Basketball in The Hague Foundation, who welcomed everyone to the event. Olara Otunnu of the United Nations followed with the ceremony's opening remarks.

The program was capped off by a special presentation and song by UNICEF's special representative Judy Collins, signaling the start of the games. Emary Sanchez, an athlete and member of the Children's Peace Movement in Colombia, was selected earlier in the day as an honorary player on the Peacebuilders 2000 team. The 5'1" point guard, who is being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, would get a change to demonstrate her skills in the exhibition series. She and fellow members of the Children's Peace Movement have been working with AUP on conducting a youth workshop on Friday titled "Peace in our Cities".

The game started out with a flurry of thundering slam dunks by AUP's Andrew Gooden, an El Cerrito High senior who was named the Player of the Year in Northern California. The team got off to a cold start, but Gooden was able to carry the squad for most of the early first half. Castlemont High's 6'3" guard Paul Marigney came off the bench in the first half to ignite the team's offensive explosion as the squad built a 15 point halftime lead. Once everyone got comfortable with the court and international rules, the squad of East Bay high school all-stars pulled off a 73-66 victory. The AUP players even managed to help Emary get a change to play some decent minutes at point guard. "Letting the young Nobel Peace Prize nominee play on the team this evening was something special," said Aart Dekker.